A Post-Peak Look at the City

The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index reported that home values in the Chicago region are down about 31 percent from their September 2006 peak. But what’s happened in your particular neighborhood or suburb?…

By Dennis Rodkin

Published Sept. 21, 2011

The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index reported that home values in the Chicago region are down about 31 percent from their September 2006 peak. But what’s happened in your particular neighborhood or suburb? Using figures from our annual real-estate charts—the latest installment is in the October 2011 issue of Chicago, on newsstands now—I have compiled stats on all 77 city neighborhoods and more than 200 suburbs to see how different communities are faring in these post-peak years. I’m looking at city neighborhoods today; come back next Wednesday for details on the suburbs.

In the city, the five neighborhoods where house prices have fallen the furthest since their peak year are all moderate-income areas that have been devastated by foreclosures, job losses, and other repercussions of the economic downturn. The communities where prices have fallen least are largely longtime affluent neighborhoods, suggesting that the “flight to luxury”—that is, a clinging to established high-quality brand names—is at play in the Chicago real-estate market.

As you will see next week, the situation in the suburbs is a bit different. There is a similar group of hard-hit moderate-income towns at the bottom of the list, but it’s not the elite towns occupying the top tier. You will have to come back next week to see that list; for now, here are the city neighborhoods. First, the neighborhoods with the biggest and smallest drops. (These numbers are based only on the sale of single-family houses, not the sales of townhouses and condos.)

BIGGEST DROPS FROM PEAK
(% drop from peak-year average house price to 2011 average house price)

TOWN

% DROP

Riverdale

88.62

West Garfield Park

85.08

Washington Park

84.74

West Englewood

84.12

Englewood

77.60

SMALLEST DROPS FROM PEAK
(% drop from peak-year average house price to 2011 average house price)

TOWN

% DROP

Near North

3.85

Lakeview

11.47

Hyde Park

12.27

Kenwood

13.95

Lincoln Park

15.43

The chart below shows each of the 77 Chicago neighborhoods; it shows the year the average house price peaked followed by the percentage drop from peak-year average house price to 2011 average house price.

HOUSING PRICE DROPS IN CHICAGO NEIGHBORHOODS(% drop from peak-year average houseprice to 2011 average house price)